The Global Gender Gap Report 2022 categorizes countries into eight regions: Central Asia, East Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin American and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, North America, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa.¹ Countries in each regional group are listed in Appendix A.

Of all regions, North America has closed the largest proportion of its gender gap, at 76.9% (Figure 1.5). Countries in North America are closely followed by Europe, which has closed 76.6% of its gap, then Latin America and the Caribbean, which has bridged 72.6%. Central Asia along with East Asia and the Pacific follow at 69.1% and 69%, respectively. In the sixth spot, Sub-Saharan Africa reports a measure of 67.8% parity. Trailing over 4 percentage points behind Sub-Saharan Africa is Middle East and North Africa, which has closed 63.4% of its gender gap. Lastly, South Asia reports the lowest performance of all regions, with a gender parity measure of 62.4%.

The regional results presented in Figure 1.5 show the results for all 146 economies included in the 2022 edition.

More detailed insight into regional performance can be drawn from Figure 1.6, in which regional results across the four subindexes are depicted in the form of a heatmap. The most significant gaps can be seen in the colour scale, where less saturated cells indicate the highest levels of gender disparity.

Against last year's results, overall regional progress has mostly stalled. On average, regions had little no movement, with variations in score being lower than 1 percentage point. The sixteen-year evolution from 2006-2022 of regional gender parity scores is presented in Figure 1.7.

In Central Asia, overall progress in closing the gender gap is stagnant at 69.1%, unchanged from the last edition. At this pace, it would take 151 years to close the gap. In 2022, Central Asia reported the fourth-highest regional score out of the eight regions, just after North America, Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

Moldova (78.8%), Belarus (75%) and Georgia (73.1%) are the three top-ranked countries in this region. Azerbaijan (68.7%), Tajikistan (66.3%) and Turkey (63.9%) rank at the bottom. Six of the 10 countries in the region have seen an improvement in their scores compared to the previous edition. Armenia (69.8%, +2.5 percentage points), Moldova (78.8%, +2 percentage points) and Kyrgyzstan (70%, +1.9 percentage points) are the three most-improved countries in Central Asia.

On the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex, Central Asia has achieved 68.2% parity, making it the fourth-most advanced region on this specific dimension, behind North America, East Asia and the Pacific and Europe. The overall subindex results do not differ largely from last year's edition; however, in this year's edition the region presented a wide dispersal of gender parity scores. Belarus (81.8%), Moldova (76.6%) and Kazakhstan (75.6%) lead the rankings for the region, while Armenia (66.9%), Tajikistan (60.9%) and Turkey (49.3%) are at the bottom. At the indicator level, Central Asia reported significant developments in economic parity. The first is an increase in the share of women in senior positions (legislators, senior officials and managers) for five of the 10 countries, including Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Armenia. Furthermore, eight of the 10 countries have achieved parity in the share of women in technical roles, with Turkey having made steady progress of 12 percentage points on this indicator. There is, however, a growing gender gap in the labour-force participation rate across all Central Asian economies with the exception of Tajikistan. Additionally, the gender gap in estimated earned income also grew in five countries: Belarus, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Moldova.

Central Asia stands near gender parity, at 98.8%, on the Educational Attainment subindex. Central Asian countries are relatively advanced in closing the gender gap across all indicators of the subindex: literacy rate and enrolment in primary, secondary and tertiary levels of education. In fact, eight of the 10 countries have closed 99% or more of the gender gap on this subindex: Kazakhstan (100%), Armenia (100%) and Georgia (100%) are the region's top three performers for Educational Attainment. Tajikistan (94.2%), where gender gaps remain to be closed on enrolment in secondary education and tertiary education, trails other countries.

In 2022, there is little movement across the indicators constituting the Health and Survival subindex: sex ratio at birth and healthy life expectancy. There has been marginal improvement in the sex ratio at birth for Armenia and Kazakhstan. However, in Armenia as well as Azerbaijan, the sex ratio at birth remains comparably lower than in countries of the region that have achieved parity in this indicator, namely Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Turkey. Gender parity in this subindex reached 97.4%, and the top-performing countries are Kyrgyzstan (98%), Moldova (98%), Georgia (97.8%) and Ukraine (97.8%).

The widest gender gap for all regions is on the Political Empowerment subindex, and Central Asia is no exception. It has only closed 11.8% of its gender gap on this dimension, having made little progress since last year. Countries in the region that have a relatively higher rate of gender parity are Moldova (41.2%), Georgia (24.8%) and Belarus (21.6%), while Kyrgyzstan (12.4%), Turkey (12.3%) and Azerbaijan (6.9%) are below the regional average. However, Moldova and Armenia have made significant strides in increasing the share of women in parliamentary positions. Moldova and Georgia also have incrementally increased the share of women's leadership as head of state between 1972 and 2022, but five of the 10 countries in the region have not elected or appointed a woman to that role during this 50-year period.

East Asia and the Pacific has closed 69% of its overall gender gap, marginally increasing the regional performance from the 2021 edition, with 13 of 19 countries improving their gender gap score. At this pace, the region will need 168 years to close the gender gap. However, within the region, there are important differences in countries' progress. The countries registering the highest level of gender parity in the region are New Zealand (84.1%), Philippines (78.3%) and Australia (73.8%), while Fiji (67.6%), Vanuatu (67%) and Japan (65%) have more progress to make. Vanuatu (67%, +4.5 percentage points) and Timor-Leste (73%, +1 percentage points) are the most-improved countries in this region since 2021. This region has the fifth-highest regional score of the eight regions in the index - higher than Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia.

At the subindex level, East Asia and the Pacific is the second-most advanced region on Economic Participation and Opportunity, after North America. The region has closed 72.2% of its gender gap, an improvement of 2.6 percentage points over the 2021 edition. Within the subindex, there is significant intra-regional disparity: Lao PDR (88.3%), Thailand (79.5%) and Philippines (79.4%) rank the highest, while Korea (59.2%), Fiji (58.6%) and Japan (56.4%) rank lowest.

Further, over half of the countries in the region, 10 out of the 19, improved their gender parity scores on Economic Participation and Opportunity. They include Australia (+4.1 percentage points), China (+4 percentage points), Indonesia (+2.8 percentage points) and Malaysia (+1.8 percentage points), which, due to their population size, have contributed to an improved regional score. One of the indicators in which there is notable regional progress is estimated earned income. The region has also seen an increase in the share of women in senior positions (legislators, senior officials and managers) in 10 of the 19 countries, including Vanuatu, Mongolia, Cambodia, Thailand and Australia. However, the labour-force participation rate of women decreased for all 19 countries between 2020 and 2021. In addition, wage equality for similar work was also perceived to be lower than in 2021 in seven countries, including Mongolia, China and Cambodia.

On the Educational Attainment subindex, 95.4% of the gender gap is closed. Japan, New Zealand and Fiji lead on this subindex whereas Cambodia, Lao PDR and China lag behind. Gender gaps are narrow across most indicators, as well over half of the countries in the region have closed more than 99% of the gender gap in the following levels of enrolment: 11 of 19 countries in primary enrolment, 14 countries in secondary enrolment, and 14 countries in tertiary enrolment.

The Health and Survival subindex has a slightly lower level of parity across the region, at 95.2%. Myanmar, Mongolia and Philippines lead scores on this subindex, while Singapore, Viet Nam and China have the most progress still to make. Marginal improvements in sex ratio at birth in Viet Nam and China have led to an average improvement of the region's subindex gender gap score of 0.3 percentage points, although 11 of the 19 countries have already achieved gender parity in sex ratio at birth. Only five countries in this region have achieved gender parity in healthy life expectancy: Mongolia, Viet Nam, Thailand, Myanmar and Philippines.

Relative to other regions, East Asia and the Pacific registered the second-lowest measure of progress on Political Empowerment, ahead only of Central Asia. The region achieved a 13.3% in gender parity on this subindex, which is marginally lower than last edition. Only four countries have closed the gender gap on the share of women in parliamentary positions by at least one percentage point: in order of magnitude of improvement, Viet Nam, Timor-Leste, New Zealand and Indonesia. New Zealand, Singapore and Myanmar have increased their share of years with a female head of state.

Europe has the second-highest level of gender parity, at 76.6%. Based on the constant set of 102 countries covered in the index since 2006, the region recorded a marginal improvement of 0.2 percentage points compared to last year, resulting in a 60-year wait to close the gap. Iceland, Finland and Norway hold the top ranks globally and in the region, while Romania, Cyprus and Greece come last in the regional rankings. Albania, Iceland and Luxembourg are the region's three most-improved countries.

Europe ranks third on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex, after North America and East Asia and the Pacific. It has closed 70.2% of the gender gap on this subindex, showing little variation in scores since the last edition, but positive variations at the indicator level. In this edition, nine of the 35 countries in the region - led by Hungary, Luxembourg and France - have improved their score by at least 1 percentage point. The countries that lead performance on this subindex are Sweden, Latvia and Iceland, while North Macedonia, Italy and Bosnia and Herzegovina are at the bottom of the regional ranking. At the indicator level, 15 of the 35 countries increased their gender parity score by at least 1 percentage point in terms of the share of women in senior positions. Among them, Bulgaria, Sweden and Cyprus made the most improvements. Most countries (30 of 35) are on the verge of closing their gender gaps in the share of women in technical roles, with a level of parity of 99% or more, and 22 countries - including Hungary, France and the United Kingdom - have improved their scores for perceived wage equality for similar work. Twenty-two of the 35 countries have closed at least 80% of their gender gap in labour-force participation rate. However, Italy, Romania, North Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina have closed less than 70% of their gender gap on this indicator.

Europe's gender gap on Educational Attainment is nearly closed, with only 0.5 percentage points remaining. All countries in the region have closed more than 97% of their gender gap on this dimension, and 12 of 35 countries are at parity. Similarly, Europe has closed 97% of the gender gap on the Health and Survival subindex, with eight countries having attained gender parity in healthy life expectancy. And while 20 of 35 countries have reached parity in sex ratio at birth, the sex ratios of countries like Albania, Montenegro and Cyprus continue to be skewed in detriment to the region's overall gender parity on this indicator.

While it has the index's highest level of parity on Political Empowerment, at 39.8%, Europe, like all other regions, has its widest gender gap on this subindex relative to the other dimensions. Nonetheless, there has been an improvement of 2.8 percentage points on the subindex score since 2021, driven by positive variation in the scores of 23 of the 35 countries. The gender gap in the share of women in parliamentary positions improved by at least 1 percentage point in 17 countries, with Iceland, Netherlands and Albania making the most progress. In addition, 10 countries increased their share of years in leadership by women as heads of state in the last 50 years, although nine of the region's 35 countries have never had a female head of state in the last 50 years.

Latin America and the Caribbean ranks third of all regions, after North America and Europe, on the overall index. The region has bridged 72.6% of the gender gap, an increase of almost 0.4 percentage points since the previous edition. Based on the current pace of progress, Latin America and the Caribbean will close its gender gap in 67 years. Six of the 22 indexed countries in this edition improved their gender gap score by at least 1 percentage point. Among them, Peru, Guyana and Chile have improved their gender parity scores the most. By contrast, more populous countries such as Brazil, Mexico and Argentina showed mild stagnation in scores. At the lower end of regional performance, Barbados, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras and Colombia decreased their scores. This divergence in performance then informs the overall regional ranking, where Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Barbados hold the top three spots in the region, while Brazil, Belize and Guatemala occupy the lowest ranks.

On the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex, Latin America and the Caribbean fares better than two regions: Middle East and North Africa and South Asia. Gender parity on this subindex has reached only 64.5% in this region, virtually unchanged from the previous edition, even as 13 of the 22 countries have improved their subindex scores by at least 1 percentage point. In terms of regional rankings on this dimension, Barbados, Jamaica and Panama take the first three spots, while Chile, Mexico and Guatemala rank the lowest. At the indicator level, 16 countries report improved gender parity scores on estimated earned income by at least 1 percentage point. However, this measure masks a loss of estimated earned income for women in 13 countries, and for men in 19 countries. In Barbados, Belize, Chile and Honduras, the decline in levels of estimated earned income for both men and women is further compounded by a decrease in gender parity on this indicator, meaning women's estimated earned income dropped in greater proportion than men's. Even so, positive variation emerges in other indicators. For example, there is an overall improvement in the perception of wage equality for similar work in 15 countries. Broadly, there have been gains in the share of women in senior positions and share of women in technical roles in most countries. In Guyana, Guatemala and Uruguay parity has increased among workers in senior roles by at least 10 percentage points. Further, the gender gap among workers in technical roles is narrow in most countries in this region, with 13 countries already reporting parity, and countries like Bolivia and Chile making strides of over 10 percentage points towards parity or near parity on this indicator.

Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean showed high levels of gender parity on the Educational Attainment subindex, where, as of 2022, there is less than 0.5% of the educational gender gap to close. Individual country gender parity scores are also high, with 19 of the 22 countries in this region having closed at least 99% of their gaps. By education level, we see that nine countries have closed their gender gap in primary education, 17 countries in secondary education and 18 countries in tertiary education. However, the absolute levels of enrolment in all three levels of education in countries like El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala for both genders remain relatively lower than their neighboring countries.

On Health and Survival, Latin America and the Caribbean has closed 97.6% of its gender gap, and all countries in the region have closed at least 96% of their gender gap. All countries except Suriname have attained parity in sex ratio at birth. A further seven countries have attained parity in life expectancy at birth, while Honduras, Peru and Bolivia still need to close this gap.

The widest gender gap for Latin America and the Caribbean is still on the Political Empowerment subindex. The region improved its gender parity score by 1.8 percentage points since last year, resulting in 28.7% of the gender gap closed, placing it as the third-best performer on this subindex, after Europe and North America. However, there are significant country disparities in gender gap scores, with the highest being 0.625 for Nicaragua and the lowest 0.075 for Belize. Overall, the three most-improved countries on this dimension in the region are Peru, Chile and Honduras, while eight countries saw negative or no variance against last year. At the indicator level, 10 countries - led by Peru, Chile and Barbados - increased the share of parliamentary positions held by women. Peru and Honduras also increased their share of years in leadership by a female head of state. This results in a regional ranking for this subindex are led by Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Mexico, while Brazil, Guatemala and Belize rank in the bottom.

With an average population-weighted score of 63.4% Middle East and North Africa has the second-largest gender gap to close, after South Asia. The region's gender score remains similar to the last edition, which gives Middle East and North Africa a timeframe to close the gap of 115 years. Israel, United Arab Emirates and Lebanon are the best-performing countries, while Qatar, Oman and Algeria are the worst-performing countries. This year's most improved countries in the region, compared to 2021, are Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Kuwait.

There is a marked improvement on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex, which raised the level of progress in closing the gender gap from 44% to 46% in 2022. At the subindex level, Israel, Kuwait and Jordan lead the regional rankings, while Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt rank at the bottom for economic parity. There was broad improvement across key economic indicators, except for labour-force participation rate. Six countries, led by Kuwait, Oman and United Arab Emirates, increased their share of women in technical roles; however, only Oman increased the share of women in senior roles. Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Tunisia had a positive increase in the gender gap scores for labour-force participation between last year and 2022, while most countries in the region saw a decline. Overall, over half of the 13 countries in the region improved their subindex scores, with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Morocco registering the most progress, while six countries saw their subindex score decline, with the most negative variation in Bahrain and Egypt.

On Educational Attainment, the Middle East and North Africa region achieved 96.2% of gender parity. Israel is the best-performing country on this region, with full parity. Oman, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria are the only countries in the region that have closed less than 95% of the gender gap on this subindex. Among countries for which data is available, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Kuwait and Qatar have closed their gender gaps in primary education. While Jordan's primary enrolment gender gap is at 98%, the share of enrolment for both girls and boys is considerably lower than in other countries. In secondary education, Algeria, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon and Tunisia have all achieved parity - although the overall share of enrolment in Jordan and Lebanon is considerably lower than in other countries. All countries in the region have closed their gender gaps in tertiary education; however, in four countries the shares of enrolment for women are below 50% for this level of education.

Middle East and North Africa has closed 96.4% of its gender gap for Health and Survival. Of all countries in the region, only Qatar has more than 5% of the gender gap to close. Lebanon, Tunisia and Kuwait are the best-performing countries on this subindex, with 96% or more of the gender gap closed. At the indicator level, gender parity for sex ratio at birth has been attained by 11 of the 13 countries in the region. Only Egypt and Morocco trail behind. However, the region is behind the curve on closing the gender gap in healthy life expectancy. Here, Bahrain, Algeria, Jordan and Qatar are among the weakest performers globally.

Across the Political Empowerment subindex, the region has closed 15.2% of its gender gap, which represents a slight decrease from last year of 1 percentage point (based on constant countries). This places Middle East and North Africa as the third-lowest regional score on this subindex, ahead of East Asia and the Pacific and Central Asia. The diverging degrees of participation women have in political life across the region is evident in the subindex as well as indicator scores. The region's highest subindex score is that of United Arab Emirates, at 0.402. The lowest is Kuwait at 0.023. Only United Arab Emirates has achieved parity at the parliamentary level, while Saudi Arabia remains at 0%. Lebanon has the highest level of parity for ministerial positions, with the share of women at that level amounting to 32% of seats. By contrast, Saudi Arabia has the lowest, at 0%. Notably, in 2021 Tunisia named its first woman as head of government, becoming the second economy in the region, alongside Israel, to have a female head of state in the past 50 years.

North America is the most advanced region in terms of closing the gender gap. The population-weighted average score for the region in 2022 is 76.9%, a marginal improvement of 0.5 percentage points since the last edition, reducing the number of years it will take to close the gap from 62 to 59 years. The improvements are due to a slight increase in the gender gap score of the United States and a stable score in Canada.

North America leads on closing the gender gap on the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex, reporting a value of 77.4% in 2022, 2.1 percentage points more than the previous edition. What contributed to this gainin gender parity at the indicator level was a substantive improvement in perceived wage equality for similar work in the United States (+10.4 percentage points). There was also an increase in parity in estimated earned income, amounting to 1.2 percentage points in the United States and to 4.1 percentage points in Canada. Both countries have also closed their gender gaps on the share of women in technical roles. However,economic parity is lagging in two indicators. The first is the rate of labour-force participation, where progress has stalled for both countries. The second is the share of women in senior roles, where the United States widened its gender gap by 2.4 percentage points.

On Educational Attainment, North America reported 99.7% of the gender gap closed. Both countries have attained parity in literacy rate and tertiary education. Furthermore, the United States has closed its gender gap for enrolment in primary education and is on the verge of closing the gender gap on secondary education. For Health and Survival, both countries reported parity for sex ratio at birth and near parity for healthy life expectancy. This positions North America merely 3.1 percentage points away from achieving parity on this subindex.

Despite leading across other subindexes, North America has the third- widest regional gap on Political Empowerment, only ahead of East Asia and the Pacific and South Asia. While women occupy an equal or near equal share of ministerial roles in both countries, the progress has not been sufficient to improve the overall levels of parity at parliamentary level. In both countries, women occupy less than 31% of seats. Furthermore, to date the United States has never elected a female head of state.

Among the eight regions covered in the report, South Asia ranks the lowest, with only 62.4% of the gender gap closed. The lack of progress since last edition extends the wait in South Asia to close the gender gap to 197 years, with broad stagnation across the gender parity scores of most countries. Bangladesh and Nepal lead regional performance, with over 69% of their gender gaps closed, while Afghanistan registered the region's and world's lowest level of overall gender parity, with a score of 43.5%.

South Asia has the widest gender gap on Economic Participation and Opportunity, having closed only 35.7% of this gender gap. While the subindex score is an improvement of 1.8 percentage points from last year, there are considerable country divergences that anchor the result as the lowest among all regions. Afghanistan has only attained 17.6% parity on this subindex, well below the highest score of Nepal, at 64.1%. Highly populated countries are for the most part driving variation within this subindex. For example, increases in the share of women in professional and technical roles were most notable in Nepal, Bangladesh and India. On the other hand, the shares in Iran, Pakistan and Maldives regressed, with less impact on overall regional performance. India and Sri Lanka have progressed on closing the gender gap in the share of women in senior positions as well, while Iran has regressed. Estimated earned oncome only improved significantly in the Maldives, while labour-force participation has largely stalled across most countries, regressing significantly in Iran, Bhutan and Afghanistan.

In comparison to other regions, South Asia ranks second lowest on the Educational Attainment subindex, above Sub-Saharan Africa. Literacy rate, one of the core indicators for education, saw no change in five countries. However, there were losses in literacy parity in Afghanistan (10.3 percentage points) and in lesser measure, in Bangladesh (-0.3 percentage points). One indicator with positive results across the board is tertiary education, where one more country achieved parity this year (Bhutan), bringing the regional total to five. Finally, all countries for which data is available have closed more than 98% of their gender gap in enrolment in primary education.

South Asia has one of the lowest regional gender parity scores for Health and Survival, at 94.2%. In this subindex, only Sri Lanka has closed its gender gap, while Afghanistan, Pakistan and India are among the worst-performing countries globally. Sex ratio at birth remains relatively low in large, populated countries such as India and Pakistan, whereas Bangladesh, Bhutan, Iran and Sri Lanka have reached parity. In terms of healthy life expectancy, no country is at parity apart from Sri Lanka, and countries in the region are among the lowest-ranked performers overall on this dimension.

South Asia has the fourth-highest regional performance on the Political Empowerment subindex, having achieved 26.3% of gender parity, -0.7 percentage points lower than the last edition. The movement stems in part from the reduction of gender gap scores in countries where women's share of years in political leadership for the past 50 years is reduced, for example in India. Another source of movement emerges from Bhutan and Nepal improving parity in parliamentary seats by an additional percentage point. South Asia still ranks ahead of Middle East and North Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, and Central Asia on this subindex. The highest-ranking countries in the region within this dimension are Bangladesh, India and Nepal, where women have held the highest office in the country or participate more widely in government. The lowest-ranking countries on this subindex are Bhutan and Iran.

Sub-Saharan Africa has the sixth-highest regional score and has bridged 67.9% of its gender gap in 2022. It ranks ahead of Middle East and North Africa as well as South Asia. Among the countries included in the regional grouping, Rwanda, Namibia and South Africa rank highest, and Mali, Chad and Democratic Republic of the Congo rank lowest.

Based on scores of 102 countries constantly covered since 2006, Sub-Saharan Africa registers its highest gender gap score in sixteen years (68.7), improving its performance from last year by 1.1 percentage points. While the region has steadily improved its overall performance, this year's results reflect positive changes in relatively populated countries such as Nigeria, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Kenya, where gender parity has increased along the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex. At the present rate, it would take 98 years to close the gender gap in the region.

Based on the constant set of countries included in the report, Sub-Saharan Africa reports an impressive 4.4 percentage point increase from last year's gender gap score on Economic Participation and Opportunity, reaching a score of 68.4%. This is the fifth-highest regional score among the eight regions, ahead of Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia. The countries that lead parity scores within this dimension are Burundi, Kenya and Botswana, while Comoros, Mali and Senegal rank at the bottom. Improvement stems in part from Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia and Rwanda closing their gender gaps for workers in senior positions, as well as to an improvement in parity for estimated earned income in 18 of the region's 36 countries. Finally, unlike in other regions, the gender gap in labour-force participation decreased significantly.

On Educational Attainment, Sub-Saharan Africa ranks lowest globally, with an enduring gender gap of 12.1%. While the region registered a marginal improvement of 0.9 percentage points on the subindex score, there are persistent barriers that are keeping the region from achieving parity. In compulsory education, only 23 of 36 countries have closed at least 97% of their gender gap in primary education. The level of parity drops to 17 countries having closed at least 95% of their gender gap in secondary education enrolment. At the same time, relatively populated countries show important improvements in scores. For example, Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria and Tanzania have improved parity in tertiary education. This results in a subindex ranking where Lesotho, Botswana and Namibia are the highest-ranked countries, with Guinea, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Chad at the bottom.

In terms of Health and Survival, Sub-Saharan Africa has closed 97.1% of its gender gap, the third-highest regional score, just behind Latin America and the Caribbean and Central Asia. It counts 11 countries at full parity for healthy life expectancy, and all countries in the region have achieved gender parity in sex ratio at birth.

The level of parity in Political Empowerment in Sub-Saharan Africa is 21.5%, which, based on the constant set of countries that have appeared in the index since 2006, also shows a substantive improvement of 3.3 percentage points from last year. The subindex is headed by Rwanda, South Africa and Mozambique, with Sierra Leonne, Burkina Faso and Nigeria towards the bottom. The increase in score derives from the growing share of women assuming parliamentary seats across the region. In 12 of the 36 countries, more women became parliamentarians, including, by order of magnitude: Chad, Guinea, Cape Verde and Cote d'Ivoire. Women were also elected or appointed heads of state in the past year in Ethiopia, Togo, Tanzania and Uganda, improving the corresponding indicator's gender parity score.